Chapter 556: The Lost Land of Gold

"Where is the mine?" Mu Sicheng asked.

Bai Liu's voice came out of his headset, "You break into the Gold Distribution Department, which manages gold distribution and should have a map and location of the gold mines inside."

"OK." Mu Sicheng responded, turning around and violently kicking open the door, and was greeted by a huge amount of gold dust, which Mu Sicheng quickly covered his mouth and nose, but still inhaled some of it and began to choke and cough violently, swatting it away, half-smiling, and walking into the gold hair office.

The ground floor of the Golden Hair Office is very open, as wide as a stadium, and the height of the floor is estimated to be six or seven metres, with a magnificent octagonal ceiling hanging from the centre of the ceiling, crystal pendants hanging from the eight corners, with ribbons scattered in eight directions, connected to the floor, silk rosy ribbons covered with gold dust, and gold sculptures of animals in different shapes in the hall, beautiful, like some kind of celebration. The hall is also decorated with gold sculptures of animals in different shapes, as if it were the venue of some kind of celebration.

Mu Sicheng took a picture and sent it over to Liu Jiayi who tsked: "A department that manages money is so romantic, this country is really ......"

"Naive." Bai Liu's calm voice took over, " Mu Sicheng, get close and take a picture of these sculptures for me to see."

"Good." Mu Sicheng leaned in close to take a picture of the dog's golden sculpture for Bai Liu to see, but as he did so, he was keenly aware that something was wrong, "This dog ......"

The dog is wearing a collar, its mouth is wide open, its fur is well defined, it is crouched on the ground with its tongue out, looking in a certain direction, as if waiting for its owner, its eyes can be seen turning in an arc, but it just stops so suddenly, so lifelike that it is a little frightening - it is no longer like an ingenious sculpture, but like a real pet dog frozen in gold.

"Gold is not suitable for sculpture because it is too soft and difficult to carve very fine lines." Bai Liu's unhurried voice came through, "That's why the average craftsman doesn't purposely make gold sculptures either, as it's very difficult to produce fine work."

"So ......" Tang Erda asked hesitantly, "the dog is most likely ......"

"There are not enough clues or information to be sure." Bai Liu skimmed lightly, " Mu Sicheng, don't touch."

Mu Sicheng stopped his hand from touching and scratched his head, "How did you know I was going to touch it?"

"What you must be thinking is that if this dog is a real dog being solidified, then most likely it is a monster, and if you unlock the monster book after touching it and let the dog attack you, we can identify the dog, right?" Bai Liu asked calmly and rhetorically, "But have you ever thought that if the dog is really a monster, do you think there will only be such a monster in such a big hair department?"

"Be careful when you go upstairs so you don't bump into any other statues."

Mu Sicheng paused for a moment as he looked towards the stairs hidden behind him and slowly but carefully made his way over.

Behind him, the eyes of the golden dog, which had been motionless, moved slowly a little, and a drop of saliva rolled off its outstretched tongue, which turned into drops of gold the moment it landed along its fangs.

There are also some animal statues in the corridor, a squirrel and a bird on the windowsill and two cats in the corridor, all of which Mu Sicheng carefully jumped over and photographed and sent to the large group to see.

"How strange, why are there no human sculptures?" Muke ponders the question, "It's all animals."

"Maybe it's because no one is at Goldfarb." Mu Sicheng replied after looking around, "There's a lot of golden dust falling on all the stairs in the front of the place, things have been emptied, it feels like no one has been here for a while, and the dog from before had the feeling of being a stray."

"Which means that this hairdresser's office has been empty for a long time, causing many stray animals to move in." Muke pondered, "and then turned into golden eagles here."

Mu Sicheng kicked open an office door, pried open a desk drawer and rummaged through it to find a map: "I found the map of the mine, do I need to look for other clues?"

"Not for now." Bai Liu ordered in a quiet voice, "Come out first, it's no accident that animals turn into golden eagles here, don't stay in a place like this until you know for sure."

"Is there a drop in life and spirit value?"

Mu Sicheng flipped sharply out of the window sill to check his whereabouts and tapped on the system panel: "None of them."

There was a moment of silence across the headset, and Muke's slightly puzzled voice came through, "Neither do we."

"So it's neither mental alienation nor a drop in vitality, how did these animals become golden eagles?"

"Is there a high concentration of gold dust in the hairdresser's office?" Bai Liu asked.

"It was high." Mu Sicheng replied quickly, "I was choking as soon as I got in."

"It should be related to this thing." Liu Jiayi's voice came through, "We found some masks on our side at the hospital, but it didn't work, these gold powders seem to be so fine that they feel like they can be sucked in even with the masks on, we found some information at the hospital and summed up some information to talk to you about."

"Many of the hospital's recent medical records are of miners." Muke explains calmly, "The miners here seem to be earning a lot of money, staying in very nice wards and using the most advanced treatments, and reading the notes on the medical records, these miners have been using the best protection and technology since mining and there have been no major problems, but after a certain point in time, the gold minerals here started to decline and the Gold Development Agency introduced a series of layoff strategies and the miners lost their jobs in large numbers and the population was very upset."

"Some time after that, about ten years ago, the date on the medical records, there was a sudden explosion of declining gold minerals, an increase in demand for miners, and many mines hired miners in large numbers."

"But it was also from that time onwards that miners became much more likely to develop occupational diseases."

"From the medical records over here it appears to be a disease of organ sclerosis, at first it was thought to be the same perennial miner's occupational disease as before, but then it became apparent that something was wrong and no amount of medication could alleviate this organ sclerosis, the number of miners suffering from the disease increased in large numbers and the seriously ill miners would even cough up some sort of golden red powder."

Liu Jiayi said, "We presume it would be bloodstained gold dust."

"Exactly." Muke nodded, "It would have been around that time that Georgia, the Grand Prince here, raised the heresy that the burgeoning gold mines were due to heretical influence and demanded that they be closed down and handed over to the Heretic Three Bureau to deal with, causing outrage."

"So the day Georgia insisted on handing over the mine, all the people went to the mine to stop it." Bai Liu continued calmly, "The people of the Gloren State did not trust the heretical processing bureau from Buming and they could not understand Georgia's choice."

"Even his father, the king of Gloren." Tang Erda let out a long, complicated sigh, "went to stop him too - we found a newspaper with the biggest headline calling on everyone to stop Georgia and giving him the title [The Great Prince of Treason]."

"They said Georgia was destined to become [a godforsaken man], and he would have been sixteen at the time."

"No wonder I didn't see anyone in the streets, they've all gone to the mines." Mu Sicheng came to his senses and then asked with some distress, "But there are so many points marked on the mining map, there are seven big mining points, which one is it?"

"There should be something else recorded on the DAC map of mining areas." Bai Liu asks, "Does it say anything about the recent increase in mineral extraction in each mining area?"

"Yes." Mu Sicheng replied.

Bai Liu: "Go to the nearest mine with the biggest increase."

"Let's see ah ......" Mu Sicheng looked carefully for a rummage, "Ah! 13 mine."

"Okay, you go first, keep quiet, we'll follow you closely." Bai Liu ordered calmly, "Don't clash with Georgia's army until I arrive."

Mu Sicheng: "OK!"

13 Mining.

Georgia stood on a treacherous hill, untouched by grass and covered in gold dust, through which some black mineral soil could be faintly seen, and looked down at the derelict tracks and wagons at the foot of the hill - once the most prosperous mining area in the country, with more than three thousand wagons a day and tracks that ran all the way to the centre of the city below the King's Castle.

After a long winter break, the first mining starts each spring, with excited miners driving the ore wagons out of the caves and transporting them across the snowy plains to the King's Castle below.

Everyone would grind the first load of gold mined into gold dust and scatter it cheerfully under the castle, celebrating the arrival of another carefree, fairytale spring in the land of gold with him and his father standing on top of the castle.

What an extravagant memory that he was laughing with them at that time, his pupils reflecting the golden dust falling from the sky - for a long time he thought this was what spring would look like when it arrived.

The gold will be transported in a steady stream to the Gold Development Agency, which will plan the gold to be sold for trade. They will collect information, plan and calculate the amount of gold to be sold every month and every year, within a range that will not devalue the gold outside, in exchange for goods that will make the whole country happy.

The Gold Development Agency, the Gloren's export to the outside world, is the only place where the entire Gloren country communicates with the outside world, and is known as the [Window to Gloren] and was once the most respected institution in the entire country.

Georgia once entered the service and relied on his ability to reach the position of Deputy Director of the General Administration, he had access to many core secrets and it was through this window that he learned of the existence of the Heretical Authority.

Georgia at the time did not approve of the GAO's approach and questioned the chief, who was older than his father and had managed the GAO for half a century: "Why was some of the gold not left as an emergency reserve when it was planned?"

"The amount of gold issued to nationals and for foreign transport can both be reduced appropriately."

"Why should we keep it?" The Chief Commissioner looked at him with a suspicious look, "Your Royal Highness, we have to make the best life possible for each of our citizens with the gold that we can extract, they can't live that well if we keep that much gold."

"But ......" Georgia clenched his fists and he bowed his head, "Gold, there comes a time when it runs out."

"Ha ha, how so?" The Chieftain laughed uproariously as if he had heard a great joke, "The waters of the Gulo Sea will dry up, the rice fields of the Gloren will wither, but only the gold-"

"- is inexhaustible."

"That day will not come." The Chieftain looked at the gloomy prince and winked playfully, "Hey, future king, cheer up, is it the gold and gold dust mined from the spring carts that didn't fall to you this year?"

The Chief Minister patted the silent Georgia on the shoulder and said with a loving smile, "Don't say such things about reducing the gold given to the people, the people of Gloren love you so much that they would all cry out in sadness if they heard that."